Old Timers...

I am always amused at how attached I get to some of my monsters. And there are some of them have been around since my early days of sock monster making. When the "old timers"get sold, I get so happy. It's so funny and ridiculous that I get so happy that these sock monsters have finally found a home. Here are two monsters that were sold this weekend that are from the early days...the days before I even had a sewing machine, so they are completely hand-sewn.

Goodbye rainbow Fish-Dog!

Goodbye pink spotted Lion Fish-Cat! I always loved your sparkly green button eyes. I wish I had more buttons like those.

This is a picture from the early days (January of 2007 to be exact). Now that the rainbow Fish-Dog and Pink Fish-Cat have been sold, all the monsters in this picture are either sold, or I have kept them for myself! I kept a lot of my early creations. They are so hard to part with! Can you guess which ones I've kept? (I'll give you a hint...I kept 4 of them...and one of them was made by my husband.)

Emoti-Nubbins

A friend of mine is a teacher and ordered a set of my "Emoti-Nubbins" for her classroom this year!

I added 2 new emotions to the set (well, they're more like feelings than emotions)...and omitted one that was included in the previous sets (Worried/grey).


Angry (red).

Happy (yellow). In the original Emoti-Nubbins set I was comissioned for, the client wanted Happy to be orange. But I changed it for this set. I feel like yellow is a happier color. It reminds me of sunshine.

Sick (green). I know...more of a feeling than an emotion. But I wanted a green Nubbin in there and thought "sick" was the most appropriate feeling. I know the traditional emotion for green is jealousy/envy, but that's a pretty complex emotion to do with such a simple monster. I suppose I could have made "Worried" green too (instead of grey). But I stand by making green the Sick one.

Sad (light blue). The very first Emoti-Nubbin was a sad, blue one. I made it specifically to promote awareness of the CPSIA vs. Handmade issue. A lady saw it and wanted to order a set of Nubbins with different emotions. Thus the concept of the Emoti-Nubbins was born.

Tired (dark blue). Another "feeling" more than "emotion". But I figured something schoolchildren feel a lot is tired. This is the first Nubbin I've ever made with little eyelids. I thought it needed the lowered eyelids to make it look like it was tired and make it look like it was yawning and not yelling. (Although I can imagine it whining, saying "Awwwwww!"). I don't know. It was an experiment. What do YOU think it looks like?

And lastly...Silly (purple).

I wanted another "positive" emotion in the set. Plus, sometimes "happy" just doesn't describe it because you just feel downright silly!

*MARKET RESEARCH TIME!:

1. What emotions would YOU want me to include in the Emoti-Nubbins?
2. What colors have I not included (pink? brown? black? orange?) that you would put an emotion with?
3. Would you change any of the emotions on the colors I DID include in this set?

I'm curious! PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT! ;)

Custom Carved Logo Stamp from JackBear Stamps

I got my custom hand-carved stamp of my KiraArts logo from JackBear Stamps yesterday!

I think it turned out great! I'm ordering another one with a Nubbin design...

I'm so excited! JackBear (John) is on vacation this week, so it'll be a bit before I get it. My plan for using it is because I was inspired by the Swag Bag I got from MayDay Underground...

...and I want to make some similar bags with my nubbin design instead of the owl. (which John carved the stamp for as well!)

The cool thing is that John suggested making a trade instead of me just paying for the stamp. He picked out this blue & purple guy (because he liked how the monster looks like he has a beard!) and I traded it to him for the stamp. I actually had my hubby meet John at a Starbucks after work to make the trade (since CJ works in Rochester). I love the idea of bartering with fellow artists!

Vegas-bound Recycled Monsters!

No sooner were these monsters made and listed on Etsy that they were snapped up...and they are now on their way to Vegas!

Introducing Denim Dude...a simple little guy meant to stand up to the rigorous play and chewing of pets and babies alike (but no toy is indestructable!) I'm curious how well this guy will hold up in his new home, since I think it was bought for a dog. And the one I made for Luna...well let's just say it's been stashed in the cabinet of dog toy triage. But The one I made for Luna was a thinner, stretch-denim...this Denim Dude is made out of different pair of jeans that seems sturdier.

I also made (and sent) two Recycled Nubbins...

I've been making a lot of recycled monsters lately in continued attempts to use up my scraps of old clothes before I move this summer. The first two monsters shown above were made out of denim, the third was made out of sweatshirt material. I like how the red sweatshirt material looks inside-out. I don't think I've used it right side out yet! It's just so fuzzy looking!

Monster of the Day...Patchwork Monster

I've mentioned that my husband and I are planning on buying a house this summer. So in trying to prepare myself for packing up my household, I have been going through my disaster-area of a craft room and trying to sift through all my supplies...deciding on what is worth keeping, knowing I will have to move it when we get a house. I was going through my box o' scraps and made this little guy made out of corduroy scraps. (I love corduroy!)

The "M" is for Mary. My friend saw this monster as I was finishing it up at church last week (closing it up and adding the eyes), and she wanted to buy it to give to her friend (named Mary) who was coming to visit her this week. So she asked if I could add a little pocket on with an "M" on it...and, gladly, I obliged.

KiraArts News (March 9th)

Here's a quick recap of what's been going on in KiraArts' land this past week/weekend...

• Woo Hoo! I just hit 50 "hearts" on Etsy! (I know..."big deal" right? "Tell me when you make it to 100". Hey, fifty is a lot for a small time Etsy girl like me!)

• In other news...I sent out another box o' monsters out to Vegas to Mystery Rider. And he was nice enough to make this little mini-commercial for me on You Tube!
  
  

• Here's a rather fuzzy look at my rather fuzzy monsters at a not-really-so-fuzzy table at the First & Last: Arts & Crafts show at Spot on Friday.

• I added some of my art into the mix of monsters this week...and actually had a girl comission a piece based on the Luna Moth painting seen in the basket...

• I finished up 4 more sock monsters while I was sitting at the show (I like using the time there to get a lot of hand-sewing done). They'll be up on my Etsy shop soon.

More Custom Emoti-Nubbins

I just finished another set of custom Emoti-Nubbins.

And here's a look at the finished Shamrock Nubbin.

Both have already been reserved a trip to Vegas in order to go to my #1 Etsy customer The Mystery Rider. But I'm willing to do more if asked!

So long Nubbins! Have fun in Vegas! (but not the kind of fun that "stays in Vegas"!)

Craft Show Update

So, I realize I owe my loyal readers an update on this past weekend's art/craft show.
The 5 hours at Spot flew by each night this weekend! Friday night was over before I knew it and I'd made a decent amount of sales...about 11 monsters. Saturday was quick-feeling too, but with much less sales...one sweater cat at the end of the night. This was my table set-up on Friday (I don't think I ever set up my table the same way twice!)

I sold another one of my favorite monsters! This green guy has been a favorite for a long time. I love how the huge button eye makes him look kind of crazy...and his big mischeivous smile! The lady who bought him offered to take a goodbye picture of him and me.

I need to start doing more of the toothy grins I used to do. I essentially have 3 types of monster-mouths...fuzzy lips, toothy grin, and pointy teeth. I've been doing a lot of pointy teeth lately. I need to go back to some classics.

The lady who bought the green guy asked if he had a name...I said that I never really gave him a name and then randomly off-the-top-of-my-head said he could be "Phil". Isn't that sad?...he was one of my favorites and I never even named him!

I want to be more diligent about naming my monsters. People really seem to like it when they have names...and personalities. I've recently come up with a way of coming up with funny-sounding monster names...I found that some of the word verifications (or captcha ) you see sometimes before you can comment on some blogs sometimes look like funny words. I thought then that they would make perfect monster names! Here's a list of some of them I've gathered:

• Hagnizi
• Ellowilla
• Joysi
• Bylserst
• Trali
• Cinti
• Berslymp
• Grack
• Calaspec
• Chipsin
• Matom
• Oustr
• Winguls
• Baskafel

I just need to assign the names to some monsters. Ellowilla and Joysi have already been assigned and are listed on my Etsy shop. Stay tunned...I may do another give-away soon (maybe Valentine's Day) and base the entry perameters on the captchas!

Spot Craft Show & Fellow Artists

I had a planning meeting at Spot Coffee last night for the Art/Craft show that's going to be there at the end of the month. The dates are Friday, January 30th - Sunday, February 1st and Friday, February 6th - Sunday February 8th. The show is on from 5:00pm-10:00pm. I will be there both weekends, on Friday and Saturday.

I was a few minutes late and missed most of the introductions, so I tried to make a point afterwards of asking the other artists their names and what they did. I ended up talking for a while with this nice, outgoing girl named Rachael about what kind of art she does and also telling her what I do. She does sketches, paintings, and these cool little jointed paper dolls. Go check out her Etsy shop.

I had brought a couple monsters with me to show if anyone wanted to see a physical representation of what I do. I showed her one of the Nubbins and she asked what I charge for each of them. I told her I sell them for $5 ...and she asked if she could buy the one I brought!

She said she's going to send it to her niece. Yay!...making children happy! I was asked by a couple people if I had kids and if I started making my monsters for them. I told them that I didn't have any kids of my own, but that every single kid at church has at least one monster!

Oh!...and the Toy Drop Nubbin that I never heard about anyone finding?...the people who work at Spot found it and I was told it resides in the office now! I knew that someone had to have found it! That makes me happy!

Quick Selling Nubbins!

Holy Moley!...I just posted the Spotted Nubbin and the Snow Leopard Nubbin on Etsy last night and they've already been snapped up!...as well as one of my flowered Nubbins! Wow!...and yay!

Farewell sweet Nubbins...I hardly knew ye! But, of course...there's always more Nubbins. They multiply quickly you know...like rabbits! I've finished a couple more today...I'll post pictures of them on the blog and making them available on Etsy soon!

Green Monsters in Vegas

Mystery Rider (the guy that bought my monsters on Etsy) sent me a picture of the monsters in Vegas!

Mystery Rider says...

"The Nubbin should be at a new home. I dropped it Christmas Eve. I sent a email to the toy society. Which is were I first found the link to your Etsy Page."

Check out this post at the Toy Society...the Nubbin was dropped at Child Haven, "a facility in Las Vegas that temporarily houses children who have been taken away from their families due to neglect or abuse". I sure hope someone finds the little guy so he can bring a little happiness to some child who needs a smile!

Thanks Mystery Rider!

My First Etsy Sale!

I made my first Etsy sale today! Hooray! These two green guys are going to a new home!

I'll be shipping them off to Vegas tomorrow...(seriously...the person who bought them is in Las Vegas!)

Goodbye Tribute for Sold Monsters

Here's a goodbye tribute post for some of my monster friends that aquired new homes this weekend...

*To anyone out there who was the recipient or buyer for any of these monsters, send me a picture of them with their new owner and I'll post it on the blog. It's a tradition I've done whenever I've given away monsters before to take a picture of them with their new, happy owner. But I didn't do it at the show because I figured it'd be kind of creepy of me if I asked to take a picture of everyone who bought a monster! *

I never thought I'd bring myself to sell this little black argyle guy. He was one of my favorites. But he went to a sweet old lady in a wheelchair who liked him because he "looked like a kitty". And she also told me her favorite part of him was his little heart.

This "socktopus"...or, I think it was more of a "glovetopus"...was a favorite of mine too!

My mom seemed almost sad to see this purple toesock guy go. He was one of her favorites.

A friend who was the teacher at the preschool I used to work at came and bought up at least 6 monsters! This purple fuzzy guy went home with her to be a gift for one of her nieces...

...her husband bought this purple fuzzy guy for his co-worker. (Anyone else noticing a theme of purple here?)...

...this turquoise sparkley stripey guy was bought as a gift for their other teenage niece...

... and this Nubbin was picked out by their 5-year-old daughter. I was told she'd actually picked it out on Etsy. She also took one of my business cards to show all her friends!...what a sweetie!

They also got two other Nubbins to give as gifts.

The other monsters that I sold were Nubbins that I didn't have pictures of...and one itty-bitty orange/yellow/pink stripey sock guy with orange button eyes that I never took a picture of.

So goodbye my dear monster friends! Go forth and make some new people happy!